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The food subsidy bill rose due to an increase in procurement of foodgrains for the central pool, higher minimum support price and additional allocation of rice and wheat to the poor via ration shops and open market

New Delhi: The country's food subsidy bill is expected to jump by 27% to Rs74,231 crore in the 2010-11 fiscal, the Lok Sabha was told today. This is due to a rise in support price and higher procurement and distribution of foodgrains via ration shops, reports PTI.

"The amount allocated for food subsidy during 2010-11 is Rs59,354.56 crore... Based on the actual offtake, an additional requirement of Rs14,877.63 crore has been sought for the current year," food minister KV Thomas said in a written reply.

The food subsidy bill rose due to an increase in procurement of foodgrains for the central pool, higher minimum support price and additional allocation of rice and wheat to the poor via ration shops and open market, he said.

The procurement cost of foodgrains has gone up but the selling price of rice and wheat via ration shops has been kept unchanged since 2002, he added.

The minister said the subsidy bill also increased due to higher offtake of subsidised foodgrains under the public distribution system and other welfare schemes.

Currently, the government supplies 35 kg of rice or wheat at subsidised rates to 6.52 crore families living below poverty line (BPL) every month. Wheat is supplied at Rs4.15 per kg and rice at Rs5.65 a kg to BPL families.

Depending on the foodgrains availability, the Centre also supplies subsidised rice and wheat to 11.5 crore families living above poverty line (APL). Wheat and rice are sold to them at Rs6.10 a kg and Rs8.30 a kg, respectively.

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The Central Bureau of Investigation will take over the probe, and the court has directed it to take steps to register FIRs against all those revenue officers named in the report as well as Raj Purohit, then Minister of State for Urban Development, within six weeks

Mumbai: The Bombay High Court today transferred from the State CID to the CBI, the probe into the Pune land scam under the Urban Land Ceiling and Regulation Act (ULCA) and directed the agency to register First Information Reports (FIRs) against former Urban Development minister and Mumbai BJP chief Raj Purohit and other revenue officers of the department within six weeks, reports PTI.

"According to the report, submitted by the one-man Committee appointed by the government, the minister (Mr Purohit) and several revenue officers of the Urban Development department had abused their powers and passed brazenly fraudulent orders," a division bench of Justices B H Marlapalle and U D Salvi observed.

"The CBI shall take over the probe and shall take steps to register FIRs against all those revenue officers named in the report as well as Purohit, then Minister of State for Urban Development within six weeks," the bench directed.

The court was hearing a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by BJP spokesperson Madhav Bhandari alleging that between 1976 and 2005, 11,894 returns (statements of property extracts and details of persons having interest in the land) were filed under the (now repealed) ULCA in the Pune urban agglomeration.

According to the PIL, bogus orders were passed under ULCA to avoid surrendering excess land to the state government.

Mr Purohit's lawyer, Niteen Pradhan, said that they would challenge the order.

The 29 cases registered by the State CID, Pune between December 2010 and January 2011 following court orders do not name even one of the revenue officers as accused in the scam.

This is one of the reasons why the court feels that the case should be handed over to an independent agency which is not under the control of the state government, Justice Marlapalle remarked.

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chhaya ravindra gaud

6 years ago

just now i received order that na order is not available in demarkation office as te land is nt counted at all. so this land gat no. 291 mouze patan taluka maval is aggricultural land frm records mr tarde had not followed the rules for demarkation, we r paying na tax. now record officer requested to look after this matter to zilla collector. how tahaseelar takes na tax and where it goes god only knows. 2 years i have collected each and every report.police r unable to put chargesheet.all reports are collected under RTI only.